Manchester United handed free run in the race for £50m defender as Chelsea pull out

Manchester United have been interested in Juventus left-back Alex Sandro for quite some time now but with Chelsea eyeing the defender as well, the situation did look a bit uncertain. However, if reports from Calciomercato are to be believed, the Blues have dropped their pursuit of Sandro for the time being, thus providing a window of opportunity for United to capitalise on.

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte currently has a solid left-back in the form of Marcos Alonso but, as we all know, the situation is not so great here at Old Trafford.

Since Patrice Evra’s departure, United have lacked a stable presence at left-back and that has been harshly highlighted quite a lot of times. When Luke Shaw joined from Southampton, he was brought in as the fix to the problem and to be honest, he did quite well initially.

Then, an injury happened and the player was sidelined for the longest time. Mourinho has been shuffling back and forth between makeshift left-backs ever since.

This season though, he started using Ashley Young a lot more in that position and the player did exceedingly well. Since he used to play as a winger, Young has used his pace effectively whenever there have been opportunities to surge ahead and has also defended quite impressively. His performances have somewhat solidified his status as United’s go-to left-back but one must remember that he is 32 years of age.

Although solid, he cannot be a long-term option and that is why a move for a player like Sandro seems like the need of the hour for us. To make matters all the more encouraging, Juventus club director Giuseppe Marotta’s words did fuel United’s hopes further while speaking at a press conference on Friday.

“The policy of Juventus is that if a player asks us to leave, we will not hold him back,” he said.

“On Alex Sandro, we know of the interest from big clubs, but at the moment we have not engaged in any negotiations.”

As far as Shaw is concerned, he did make a comeback of sorts recently but to have a player of Sandro’s calibre could truly turn things around for us at the back. With Chelsea dropping out of the race for the £50m full-back, the Brazilian could be ours to sign.